Introverted
by FanFicAddict823
Summary: An Irken introvert is something that is cherished, but occasionally, one will be missed. What happens when one of the incredibly fragile Irken introverts winds up being mistakenly sent off-world? Join our little introverted friend as he struggles to make do out of his comfort zone and far from home with his affliction. AU and OOCness galore.
1. Prolouge of Doom

**Introverted**

**A/N: I have decided to find a way to play with the Tallest's minds. *evil grin* So Zim is going to be completely different here than he is in canon. Just felt that I should warn you in advance that there is ****_intentional_**** OOCness in this fic, because I know how that can annoy some people.**

**Disclaimer: It all belongs to Jhonen Vasquez (who, no offence intended, has a funny name that my computer hates). I'm just playing with his characters for the sake of my own imagination.**

* * *

What would you do if you thought that you knew a person, only to find out that everything you know, everything you have been told, and every conclusion that you have ever drawn about said person is a lie? A misconception? The Irkens had to find the answer to this question the hard way, when they condemned an innocent soul to torment and torture without meaning to, only discovering the truth after nearly killing him.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me start from the beginning, the birth of the first introverted Irken. Via was a sweet girl, and extremely smart and creative. However, Via's parents quickly discovered that Via couldn't stand large amounts of people for extended periods of time. They took the little girl to the then-Tallest Una, who said that the girl was different from most. She was born and hardwired to create rather than destroy like all of the other young Irkens. Because of this, Via was more valuable than most children and needed to be protected more than the others. From that point on, introverted Irkens were protected very carefully, put in a special section on Irk set aside just for them and their families, and when family units were made obsolete with the introduction of cloning technology and the disease that stopped most Irkens from being able to have children, just the introverts.

It was usually easy to identify an introvert amongst the Irkens. They were always few in numbers and could never stay in a large crowd for too long without their pack overloading from the strain that it found itself under, causing the poor unfortunate Irken to pass out. However, the signs could occasionally be missed. This story is about an Irken introvert that was missed and mistakenly sent off-planet, something that should _never_ happen with an Irken introvert. Especially this specific one, as this Irken was the single most introverted Irken to ever exist. It really goes to show just how stupid these people are that they missed him, huh?

This story will follow a couple of his pre-off-world escapades, a few off-world escapades, and finally, how they finally learned of the poor soul's introvert status.

What's that? I did forget to tell you his name, didn't I? Well, not to worry, I'll fix that right now. The young Irken introvert that we are going to be following is someone that you may have heard of, and the last person that you'd ever suspect of being severely introverted. The Irken's name… is Zim.


	2. 1- Missing Little Introvert: Undercover

**A/N: Okay, so last chapter was the prologue that I made to set it up. This chapter will be set during The Nightmare Begins, so he's going to Earth after he crashes the Operation Impending II assigning party. And there will be Gir! There will some flashbacks in later chapters.**

**Disclaimer: Invader Zim belongs to the guy with the name that my spellchecker hates that I mentioned in the disclaimer last chapter (Hint: It's Jhonen Vasquez)**

"Come on, come on!" the tiny Irken urged his ship to go faster, hoping that he would not be too late. After they had announced the Great Assigning on TV, which he had only caught with no small amount of luck, the minute Irken "exile" had been racing to make it to Conventia before it ended. He was already going to be very late as it was, if he missed it altogether, he might not ever get the chance to trick the Tallests into sending him far, far away from the boundaries of the Irken Empire.

He had just barely escaped FoodCourtia (honestly, who comes up with these names? These are the types of things that should go through the Introvert Sector) before the "Great Foodening" (again, names. And what is it with them and the word "great"? The universe is run by morons) began. If the "Great Foodening" had begun while he was there, he surely would have passed out, maybe even died, from the sheer amount of people that he would have had to deal with daily.

Death would have been the more merciful option because if he were to merely pass out, Sizz-Lorr would have figured out that he was the Introvert that the Control Brains had said was made, but the Tallests couldn't find for the life of them. And had he figured that out, the inquisitive little Irken would have been shipped straight back to Irk where they would find out that he had merely taken the fall for the crimes of others so that he would be able to explore off-world and no one would suspect him as the missing Introvert. Sure, this plan was highly dangerous and extremely detrimental to his health, but he had seen the Introvert Sector of Irk, and he could honestly say that it looked incredibly boring with little to no things that he could use for inspiration. You see, this little Introvert loved the written word. He was born an author. He was also born as the single most introverted and the single most curious Irken smeet that there ever was.

By this time, the hidden Introvert had reached Conventia. He was beamed to the planet's surface, and he began to race to the Main Convention Hall where the Assigning was being held. The Introvert was very fortunate in the fact that the Foodening would keep Sizz-Lorr from tracking him down before he had gotten to a place in the far reaches of the galaxy, a place where he would be able to gain the upper hand by blending in with the local population. The diminutive Irken's good fortune proved its presence once again by bringing him into the Hall just as the Assigning was ending. He quickly yelled to get the attention of the Tallests and makes his way to the front of the crowd.

"Get outta my way! Move, you're in my way! Move it! Move it!"

"This concludes the great assigning! Help yourself to some nachos and we'll see you at the equipment station!" Tallest Red told the mass of Irkens.

"Yes! Gorge yourselves! You mooches!" Tallest Purple said, making an idiot of himself. Again.

His efforts hadn't seemed to work. The Tallests hadn't heard him. He would just have to address them directly. (Oh, this crowd was making him dizzy, pressing in on him, causing him to lose focus. Focus! Almost there! Can't blow it now.)

"NO! NO! NO! NO! WAIT!" He yelled as loud as could to be heard over the crowd.

"That voice!" he heard Red say.

"No, it can't be!" Purple had said.

"ZIM!" they both said at the same time, looking horrified that the one that they saw as a "defect" was right there in front of them, climbing up onto the stage near poor Invader Skooge who had just been assigned to the planet Blorch, home of the slaughtering rat people. You had to feel bad for the poor guy. Zim, that sneaky little introverted Irken that was at least an inch shorter than Skooge, was too busy hiding his smirk at their recognition of him behind a rather stupid looking grin.

This was going to be fun.


	3. 2- Assignment and a GIR

**Chapter 2**

**A/N: So, last chapter Zim showed up at the Great Assigning. Let's see just what that sneaky little "defect" is thinking. Plus, this chapter right here is guaranteed to contain the much loved Gir. Sorry that this chapter is so late. It would have been up yesterday, but it ended up being super long because I ****_really_**** wanted GIR to show up here. There also a very brief Dib moment. I could have shown Gaz too, but the chapter was already getting a lot longer than the others by that point.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Invader Zim and I don't see how I would be making money off of this. All dialogue in this chapter is from ****The Nightmare Begins**** of the Invader Zim TV series and therefore belongs to Jhonen Vasquez/ Nicktoons (maybe).**

As Red and Purple attempted to hide their panic, they made sure to show their complete and utter disdain for the little creature before them. This little _defect_ had ruined Operation Impending Doom I, destroyed a large chunk of Irk, and killed thousands of his own kind (well, _he_ didn't really do that; he just took credit for it, but they don't need to know that).

"Sorry I'm late, my Tallest. I couldn't find my invitation. You're lucky I made it at all," Zim said, hoping to trick the idiots that were his leaders to send him to some ridiculously far off, remote and hard-find-place, preferably one that was not currently on any map.

"You weren't invited at all," Red replied, with a hint of badly-semi-suppressed annoyance coloring his tone. This was going to be even easier than he had anticipated.

"Weren't you banished to Foodcourtia? Shouldn't you be... frying something?" Purple felt the need to ask, as if he was unaware that he was banished (which would change the instant that they found out his true status). Oh right, he was playing stupid, so it was a fair assumption on Purple's part. He could work with this.

"Oh, I quit when I found out about this," Zim explained dismissively, as if it were possible to quit being banished. (He could, he would just have let his secret slip and he'd be back on Irk in an instant.)

"You quit being banished?" Purple sounded scandalized and confused.

"The Assigning is over, Zim!" Red tried to ward him off. Zim realized he had to keep talking until one of them thought to send him outside of the borders of the known (to Irkens) universe in hopes of ending his miserable existence.

"But you can't have an invasion without me! I was in operation "Impending Doom 1"! Don't you remember?" (He hadn't, really. You have _no idea_ how hard it had been to convince that idiot that he wouldn't be blamed for whatever stupid and completely illegal thing he ended up doing if yelled out "I AM ZIM!" instead of screaming his own name to the heavens.)

"Oh, yes... We remember..." Purple retorted sarcastically. It was hard to forget what that utter moron had done, as he destroyed much of his own home planet. (Most likely the reason that the "Great Assigning" took place on Conventia this time around.) Zim smiled innocently. (Rather easy. He _was_ innocent)

"I put the fires out."

"You made them worse!" Red said, glaring at Zim, clearly exasperated.

"Worse... or better?" Zim asked in order to stoke the flames. (That guy had sure made hiding in plain sight much easier for Zim. Introverts would _never_ have done something so destructive.)

"Guh... Besides, no Invader has ever been so... very small. You're very small, Zim. You're a tiny... thing," claimed Purple, clearly forgetting that "Zim" had been this short _and_ an Invader. Idiot.

"BUT... Invader's blood marches through my veins like giant RADIOACTIVE ROBO-PANTS! The pants command me!.. DO NOT IGNORE MY VEINS!" Zim was now being overdramatic to annoy them.

"As a show of... gratitude for your service in the past... eh... Here's a sandwich." Red awkwardly handed Zim a sandwich that he pulled out of his belt. (Why on Irk did he keep a sandwich there?)

"But-" Zim had to keep them talking.

"Thanks for coming, everybody!" Purple told the crowd.

"Hello!" Zim had to retrieve their attention.

"Goodnight!" Purple was clearly dead-set on ignoring Zim. He had to more irritating.

"Hello! Hello! WAIT!"

"What? You got your sandwich!" Purple was irate. He did not currently have any snack food, or, more specifically, any DONUTS!

"My Tallest, an opportunity to prove I truly can be an Invader is all that I ask! Gimme!" He held out his hands, as if convinced that a chance was something you could hold.

"Hold on, I've got a plan," Red muttered to Purple. "We see now that you are truly deserving."

"Yes. Yes, I am." Zim acted stupid, irritating and satisfied.

"You will be sent to a planet so mysterious, no one has even heard of it!" Red explained.

"Right! And those who have heard of it... dare not speak its name!" Purple contributed.

"What's its name?" Zim asked, to seem stupid and fully convinced that they were telling the truth.

"Oh, I dare not speak it!" Zim would admit that that was rather funny.

"Where is it?" Zim acted almost skeptical.

"Um... Uh... Uh... Um... Right there!" Red exclaimed after searching the map. He was pointing at a slip of paper taped to the holograph pole that shows the outline of a planet and a question mark in it with the word 'planet?' written underneath it.

"Ooh! Oooooooooh! A secret mission!" (It wasn't really a secret, with the crowd there and all.)

"Happy now?" Red asked.

"Yes." (He wasn't just happy, he was _ecstatic_. He was finally going somewhere no Irken had gone before, let alone an_ Introvert_.)

"Invaders: Report to the equipment hall! Oh, and remember! Lasers." Red said as a laser hit Purple in the eye.

"Ahhhhhh!" Purple cried out in pain.

"The universe will be ours for the taking! It's only a matter of time before all the races of the Universe serve... the IRKEN EMPIRE!" Red exclaimed.

"I'll have them serve me the curly fries," Purple said stupidly.

-MEANWHILE…-

Dib Membrane gasped as he heard an alien race planning to invade and conquer the entire universe.

"They're coming!" he exclaimed in a whisper. His father and sister, Gaz, wouldn't believe him, but he knew the truth. He would show them all.

-BACK TO CONVENTIA (EQUIPING ROOM)-

"This is your Standard Issue Information Retrieval Unit, also known as a SIR. It will assist you in gathering valuable knowledge during your mission," Purple explained, gesturing to the SIR standing next to him.

"It's also a thermos!" Red put in. (That's stupid, why would you make the thing a thermos. That makes no sense whatsoever.) Purple picked the thing up and it went into storage mode.

"Who wants this one?" Purple yelled.

"I do!" called out a random Invader. Purple threw the SIR in his general direction and it hit him.

"Ow! Thank you," the Invader said, sounding a little woozy. (Poor guy probably has a concussion now. The again, he probably doesn't even know what a concussion is.)

"Everyone else, line up and take a robot!" Red said. As the invaders line up, a long mechanical tentacle that serves as a conveyor belt emerges from the wall. Several compact SIR units slid down, ready to serve the Invader that they were assigned to. Invader Larb stepped up as a SIR detached from the wire and unfolded, on its feet and ready for action.

"SIR! Go warm up my ship's engines," ordered Larb (Zim always found it funny for the Invaders to be calling their minions SIR. Isn't that supposed to mean deference?)

"Yes master, I obey!" the little robot said, saluting. Zim stepped up as they walked off.

"Finally! A robot slave of my own!" Zim exclaimed and reaches out, trying to look as if he expected them to give him a proper SIR. (He hoped they didn't, a proper SIR would know what he was, rat him out, and suggest that they send to the Introvert Sector and assign him a GIR, Guardian Information Retrieval unit (made so Introverts needn't leave the Sector for anything) to ensure that he didn't wander off again.)

"Um, eh, we have a "top-secret" model for you, Zim," explained Red, sounding rather contemptuous. He summoned a trashcan and searched through the junk and SIR parts as Purple pulled out a screw, 2 pennies, a paper clip, and a rubber ball from his pocket band. Red attached some eyes to a head as Purple dumped the junk in as a brain for the new robot. Purple made a howling kind of whistle noise, sounding stupid, and tossed the hunk of junk in front of Zim. It laid there, inactive.

"It looks kind of... not good," Zim said, seeming skeptic. (Inside he was panicking. That was the body of a GIR unit! Did they know what he was?!)

"Yes! Well, that's what the enemy will think! Get it?" Purple "explained" as Red nodded in agreement.

"I see! Very good! It even fooled meee! I am honored to be trusted with such advanced technology." Zim released an internal sigh of relief. They don't recognize so hopefully they built it from scratch with a faulty SIR chip. The Almighty Tallests giggled to themselves. Suddenly, the robot activated with red glowing eyes and ran up to Zim.

"GIR, reporting for duty!" the robot exclaimed, saluting. It seems the thing did, in fact, have a faulty chip, but it was a GIR chip. Hopefully it was faulty enough not recognize him, at least not in front of all these people.

"GIR? What does the 'G' stand for?" inquired Zim, trying not to look as nervous as he felt. He almost sighed in relief when the things eyes turned blue. GIR units were also for entertainment value and inspiration, only going into duty mode for short periods of time when it receives orders or there is a threat to itself or its assigned Introvert. They also had very short attention spans.

"I don't know!" the admittedly adorable robot proclaimed, bringing in its natural comedic factor by standing there stupidly. It then proceeds to itself in the head repeatedly. (No, _he_ hit _him_self. Calling him an "it" would be rude.)

"Wheeeeee hoo hoo hoo! Wheeeeeeee hoo hoo hoo!" He seemed to be having the time of his brand-new, short life.

"Um, is it supposed to be stupid?" Zim asked, still pretending that he didn't know anything about this type of "SIR unit".

"It's not stupid. It's advanced!" Purple said. (Their leaders are unbelievably stupid. That's why Zim's job of fooling them into thinking he's not an Introvert is so easy.) GIR proceeded to bounce on his head repeatedly, as the Tallest continued to snicker.

-TIMESKIP-

All the Irken ships started to leave Conventia. Zim's Voot Cruiser separated from the rest and headed for Earth, not that anyone knew that.

"Okay, GIR! Our mission begins now! Let us reign some doom down upon the filthy heads of our doomed enemies! Or, you know, at least pretend to. Either way, I'll likely get better material than most Introverts do nowadays," Zim says, deciding that the GIR would catch on to him eventually and their relationship would be easier to build if he knew the truth from the beginning.

"I'm gonna sing the doom song now!" GIR decides. "Doom doom doom doo doom doom (and so on)…"

GIR continued to sing the doom song as the Voot Cruiser zooms off. It was then that Zim remembered that GIR units weren't meant to be kept in enclosed spaces for too long. They were designed that way to Introverts from becoming hermetic. Zim realized right then and there that this was going to be a _long_ trip


End file.
